Living Our Dream: Day's Visit to Big Bend National Park

We just could not figure out how to get to Big Bend National Park: drive the RV south to a small town called Marathon and camp there, see Big Bend, then drive it back up after a couple of days; because it is a long drive (129 miles from where we currently are) to forget about going there this time and maybe do it some other Texas trip; or - just buck up and drive the car down for a day's trip. Decided to drive the car down and got on the road yesterday and drove and drove and drove and drove and got to the visitor's center of the park by 11:30am. Watched the movie, talked with the rangers on best to see the park in one day, then scaddeled out to view what we could.

Big Bend National Park is larger than the state of Rhode Island. It's big. It's also the only national park that has a mountain range contained in it (Chisos Mountains). The park is known for it's wilderness, many trails all over the park which covers over 800,000 acres and borders Mexico with 118 miles, hugging the Rio Grande River. We got to the area called Chisos Basin which meant we had to climb up and over the Chisos Mountains and down into the crater left by a volcano that erupted over 250 million years ago. Walked a nice scenic path that gave some vista views of the mountains, then drove down out of the mountains and decided to go see some other scenic overviews. By this time it was 2:45pm and we thought we had better turn around and start back. We do not like to drive in the dark and it would be at least another 2 plus hours back.

Majestic mountains

Hoo-doo type rocks

Our lunch spot

Vista views - Chisos Basin

Love the contrast

That gap is where the Rio Grande River carved
out a canyon 1500 feet deep

Abandoned farm

They say that the best time to visit is night time - the stars are amazing. If we come back, we definitely would stay in the park, whether in the campground or overnight in the lodge, and see the stars. But for now, we saw enough to say we have been there, done that. Great vista views, very desolate and arid place, I am sure if we would have driven to the farthest western point, we would have been blown away with the Rio Grande River as it carved out a canyon over 1500 feet deep. And the bird watching is rated one of the best in the nation.

Did not have the camera out fast enough to catch the javelina just munching on grass along the road - that one was big!!! Saw scat of coyotes, prints of mountain lion (26 known in the park) and deer. Pretty day, but the altitude kicked our butts - rose to over 8000 feet. Hearing the wind in the junipers and Douglas firs, seeing the agave plants with their tall flower, hearing the hawks scream overhead, feeling the cooler temperatures of the mountains, the vista views of over 100 miles.

Sotol, prickly pear, agaves

Some of the stuff we saw of our drive in and out of the park - flood gages along the washes, dead cow (talk about large Texas roadkill!), checkpoint border patrol, wind mills near cattle pens, many many gas and oil pipe line facilities, mile after mile of ranches with their fancy entrance gateway with their brand labeled on the arch, desolate lonesome area. Texas is a state of contrasts!